This Vegan Carrot Cake with Macadamia Frosting is the only carrot cake recipe you vegan cake! It’s moist, warmly spiced, and topped with a luscious vegan cream cheese frosting.
This vegan carrot cake recipe is a riff on my mom’s traditional recipe. That cake is Jack’s all-time favorite dessert, so she makes it whenever she comes to visit. Then, I make it again for Jack’s birthday. This year, instead of making her recipe as written, I adapted it to make a vegan carrot cake instead! My mom’s recipe calls for applesauce, which makes her cake super moist and light.
Using applesauce, you can actually veganize carrot cake relatively easily. Along with the shredded carrots, it adds enough moisture to eliminate the need for flax eggs or other unconventional ingredients. As a result, the cake batter comes together with pantry ingredients like all-purpose flour, baking powder, baking soda, spices, sugar, and melted coconut oil. The cake is moist, tender, and filled with warm, spiced flavor from cinnamon, nutmeg, and vanilla extract. Enjoy it on its own, or take it to the next level by slathering it in rich, creamy vegan frosting. I think you’ll love it too! Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe Tips Grate your carrots finely.
Finely grated carrots meld seamlessly into the cake, while larger pieces create a chunkier, less uniform texture. For tender, cohesive cake slices, grate the carrots on the small holes of a box grater or on the smallest setting of the grating attachment on your food processor. This rule applies to baked goods across the board. Let the cake cool completely before you frost it. Make sure your cake is at room temperature before you slather on the frosting. Vegan Carrot Cake Recipe Variations Let’s talk frosting.
The frosting recipe below is a cream cheese-like blend of macadamia nuts, cashews, lemon juice, coconut oil, and almond milk. Instead of using powdered sugar, I sweeten it naturally with maple syrup. I love this frosting, but you do need a high-speed blender to get it really smooth and creamy. This vegan carrot cake is delicious plain. We also love it with a dollop of coconut whipped cream. 2 cup into the cake batter when you add the carrots.
Sprinkle the frosted cake with chopped toasted pecans or walnuts for crunch, or use shredded coconut for extra warm, buttery flavor. The BEST vegan carrot cake recipe! Applesauce makes it super moist, and cinnamon and nutmeg give it a delicious spiced flavor. F and grease a 9×13 baking pan.
In a large bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda, cinnamon, nutmeg and salt. In a separate bowl, whisk together the applesauce, almond milk, vanilla, sugar and oil. Mix the dry ingredients into the bowl with the wet ingredients. Fold in the carrots and stir until just combined.